Question #1: Any recommendations for childbirth and newborn care classes? Our hospital sends their patients to Amma Parenting Center for all classes, but OMG they are expensive. We are planning to take their newborn care + breastfeeding class, but would really love to avoid paying for more than one really expensive class. My question I guess is how helpful was a childbirth/labor class? I could be really naive here, but I feel like a lot of what happens in labor isn't exactly up to you, so I don't quite understand paying nearly 200$ to learn about all of the different variables that might not even apply to me in the end. Has anyone tried the free classes at The Childbirth Collective, and if so, were they enough to replace a full-day class? Our plan is to do their childbirth/labor class, but I don't want to if its a waste of time!
Question #2: What type of help did you need in the first few weeks after giving birth? I generally do not do well accepting help from people. The idea of having people come over to generally "help out" makes me so uncomfortable. I just imagine a living room full of family members wanting to help and me feeling like I have to entertain them or come up with things to make them feel useful, or worse, constantly clean the house so they don't think we're gross. So, what really is useful? Any specific tasks I could ask for help?
Question #3. Cloth diapers. Do you use them? Did you decide against them? What types to do you like? What is your normal diaper routine like? I'm really hoping to be able to make cloth diapering work, purely for the reason that it saves money. There are just SO many options out there, almost too many in my opinion. What worked for you?
I have more questions to ask, but I'll just start with these 3 and see how much feedback I get. One of my favorite things about blogging is that I get access to this great resource through all of you. Your thoughts and opinions are really valuable to me, as a first time mom with very few friends with kids.
I'm not a parent yet (two more weeks til my due date!)...but can weigh in a little bit on #1 and #3:
ReplyDelete#1) We took the Childbirth Prep Class through Allina because I'm delivering at the Mother Baby Center at Abbott. It was a giant waste of time. I didn't really learn anything that I hadn't already read or heard from other moms. The nice part was feeling assured that I'm ready as I'll ever be for the childbirth process. If you do your homework, I think you'll be fine and be glad you saved the $$$.
#3) We planning on trying out cloth diapers to see if they work for us. I agree that the amount of brands/types/styles/etc. is overwhelming and it's hard to know even where to begin. My husband and I signed up for a newborn cloth diaper trial through Jillian's Drawers (http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10/newborntryclothdiapersfor10). It's super cool in that they send you a whole bunch of diapers to try out for 3 weeks and you can either choose to keep some or all of them or send them all back. If you do the later, you're only out $10. Pretty slick, huh? We're very excited that it gives us an easy, cost efficient way to sample a bunch of options!
Good luck! And I'll be stalking your comments to see what advice other moms give!
1: We took a class before Avery was born and it helped me learn nothing. However, it DID make my husband more confident in the whole thing. So in that way, money well spent. Our class was the last one before Fairview switched to Amma, not sure how they compare.
ReplyDelete2: I turned down a lot of help when er got home from the hospital. And I completely regret it and will be accepting any and all help this time! There is just so much to do on top of keeping the baby happy. Dishes, laundry, all personal hygiene gets put on the back burner. Even if someone comes over to play with the baby so you can shower/switch the laundry, you will be forever grateful. Epically the first 4-6 weeks while you get a routine figured out.
3: We didn't bother with cloth diapers. Just not for us.
:)
1) Spending money on classes through Amma was seriously some of the best money I spent in regards to my pregnancy and journey into mamahood. Not only did we take our prenatal courses through them, I took the New Mama class and it. was. AMAZING. I also did Beyond Newborns, and will take the Second Time Mamas when it comes to be that time. Seriously. I could go on and on, and will if you want additional information.
ReplyDelete2) Meals are huge, and most people who have been through it know that, so hopefully you'll have lots of offers. Hopefully your hubby is able to take some time off work. Set your expectations really low the first week or so, and have him play "gate keeper." Only have the people over who you want to have over! It's helpful to have a few "chosen ones" - parents if they are close, close friends - who could be "on call" if you need someone to come over and hang out with the babe while you take a shower, take a nap, etc.
3) I really, really wanted to...but my husband wasn't for it, so we didn't. Melissa Imboden did with Azalea, and would have lots of helpful tips.
1. I took classes through Fairview Southdale hospital and I think they were more helpful for Micah than for me. I did a TON of reading and research while I was pregnant so nothing was all that new to me during the class. Micah didn't do reading etc besides what I told him. It was a waste, but kind of fun to meet other parents who were due around the same time and commiserate.
ReplyDelete2. We didn't ask for any help-I am not that kind of person either. Micah and I prepared meals and frozen them so we'd have quick easy meals to prepare the first few weeks as well as people who randomly brought over food for us too. Because I had a rough labor and had very little sleep after Aubrey was born in the hospital, we only asked my mom and MIL if they could come and spend the night so Micah and I could get some sleep- minus waking me up to nurse Aubrey every 2-3 hours. I think that was the most help I could have ever wanted.
3. I wanted to look into cloth diapers, but Micah was against it and we didn't have the space or a wash tub in our townhouse either. In the end, disposables worked great for our family.
1. I think we took 3 classes total and it was only about $120 for all 3 together through United Hospital. Caring for infant was essentially a 'free class' because if you signed up for 2 you got one free...and it was a big waste of time. Breastfeeding and labor/delivery class were very informational. I feel like I learned so much and so did my husband.
ReplyDelete2. We didn't have any help but I am like you, I don't deal well with it. If anything, I wish we would have had meals frozen so I didn't have to worry about going to the grocery store or know what to make. I plan to bring over a meal for my friends that deliver going forward because I know that is something I would have liked.
3. We use BumGenius along with Alva and Sunbaby as fillers. BG are the go to ones for us that we use everyday. We also have the diaper sprayer and spray pal. I would recommend all those items. I was diapers every other day. The increase in our water bill has only been about $10/quarter. We have 3 large wet bags. I have 12 Sunbaby, 10 Alva and I think about 16 BG. I was either gifted BG (double packs from Target online) or used a coupon at buy buy baby to get 20% off. We have the pocket type for all cloth diapers.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
1. We took the baby classes through Regions Hospital, and I thought they were really helpful! Some of it is common sense, but I think it really helped Jake feel like he was a part of it. Our classes were cheaper than AMMA I think... maybe check into other hospital options for classes?
ReplyDelete2. I'm very independent too, and I didn't want help. My MIL had other ideas, and she ended up staying with us for the first few days. Honestly - it bothered me more than helped, but I think that was because I like doing things myself. :) I think that if your hubby can take the first week off, that would be most helpful for you!
3. We wanted to make cloth diapers work, but they just didn't. I was really sad at first, but disposables have been great. We use Target brand, which goes on sale often and with Cartwheel, you get double savings. We honestly haven't noticed that much of an increase in our spending by using them. That being said - I still love the idea of cloth and definitely think it's an option for you!
Reading through all these responses, I don't feel like I have a TON of new stuff to add, but here goes...
ReplyDelete1. We took classes through Amma (birthing class and newborn care) and while neither class had brand new info for me, they sure did for my husband (like a lot of people said), Maybe they should just offer these classes for the dads! haha. I think the at home laboring stuff (like when to go to the hospital, etc) is more important than the actual birthing stuff.
2. I would say I totally agree with Becky in that you should ONLY have people over the first few weeks that you really want to see. You will have a bajillion people who will want to meet the baby, but you will be sleep-deprived and hormonal and I found that I was embarrassed at the state of my house when people came and all I could think about was all the thank you notes that I had to write for all the gifts people brought, but maybe I was crazy. haha! Parents are life-savers though. If you don't feel comfortable having them do dishes or laundry, they can always hold baby while you take a little "break" ;) Having people bring meals is AWESOME. I felt guilty but people love to do it, so don't! We even had a friend drop food off at our door and refused to come in because she didn't want us to feel like we had to entertain her. Sort of funny, but it was really nice at the time!
3. As Becky mentioned, we did cloth diaper Azalea. Here is a link to my posts: http://thatcherandmelissa.blogspot.com/search/label/cloth%20diapering I totally planned to do it again with Ashford, but throwing another kid in the mix has left me feeling like I barely can handle the regular laundry, so I've gone with disposables so far. And I'm not sure if or when that will change. That said, we really liked cloth diapering. Good $ saver, not that much extra work (at the time), and I felt better about what we were putting on her butt and what we weren't putting in the trash.